Lies Never Meant to be Told
by ImaginaryPoet
Summary: AU After the final fight, the Scoobies are all adjusting to their new lives. Will one interesting discovery will bring crashing down, or will it bring them all closer together?
1. A Strange Introduction

The cold midnight air blew through the trees in the graveyard, shaking the autumn leaves to the ground. The sound of leaves crunching beneath running feet

became louder and nearer. Someone was running from someone or something, and they were stopping for no one. The sound of panting also became

heavier. The crunching stopped suddenly. Only masked panting could be heard now. Whoever had stopped running didn't want whoever was chasing to

know where they had gone. Suddenly, a violent crashing sound boomed throughout the night. Figuring that a vampire had been out looking for a kill, Spike

stepped out of his crypt. He saw a girl of about seventeen, with strawberry blonde hair. She was collecting her breath as the sound of curnching leaves

sounded closer once again. She quickly jumped to attention. A vampire lunged at her and grabbed her by the collar of her jacket. Spike was about to go

rescue the girl until he saw what happened next. She kicked the vampire's arm until his grip was lost and flipped him over a gravestone. She then stabbed

him in the heart, at which he quickly turned to dust.

"What the hell was that?" Spike asked in disbelief.

"It was a vam--"

"No. I bloody know what it was. How did you do that?"

"I was born to kill vampires and demons," she said, "and I can smell them a mile away. I think now is when you should run."

"Oh fuck." He said as he ran. She followed close behind him, never letting him get out of sight. He ran to the gates, and jumped over them. He ran down the

next street, with no sign of the girl. He was about to slow down when he saw her coming at him from the opposite side of the street. He started toward the

only place he knew she needed to go. He was within a spitting distance of the house, and she was too close for him to knock, so he just screamed.

"SLAYER! Buffy! Please! I need help!" Buffy opened the door of the house to see Spike running down the street, screaming like a little girl. She would

have laughed if she hadn't noticed the girl behind him running almost as fast as he. He jumped into the door, as Buffy stood in awe.

'Regular girls don't outrun vampires...' Buffy thought. "Hey! It's ok!" she yelled to the girl, walking closer to her.

"Why did you invite him into your house?"

"He isn't a bad vampire. It's fine, I'm the slayer, you can trust me." She said.

"Since when do vampires and slayers help eachother?" the girl asked.

"Come on, it'll be fine. I'm Buffy, by the way, Buffy Summers. What was your name?"

"Rosenberg. Katie Rosenberg," the girl said as she watched Buffy's jaw slowly drop.


	2. Surprise, Surpirse

Inside the house, Spike sat on the couch and listened as Katie told Buffy everything.

"I'm not sure if all of this is exactly right, but it's all I've been told," she began, "my mother's family...my mother came from a very powerful witches. Her

mother and four sisters accepted their magic, and tried to use it for good. My mother didn't want any of the things that came with witchcraft. I guess she

decided that if she didn't use it, she wouldn't have it anymore, but-"

"-she couldn't get rid of it." Buffy finished.

"You're partly right. She ran away from her family, and she thought she had gotten rid of it. She married my father thinking that he would never find out

about her power. They had a daughter. After a short time period my grandmother found out about it all. She went to see the girl. She had something

important to give her."

"So what happened when your grandmother came to see you?" Buffy asked.

"Not me," she said as the door opened up to reveal Dawn, Willow, and many shopping bags, "her."

"Wait, so your red's little sis? Bloody threw me for a loop. Cousin, I thought. Go on with the story." Spike was amused with this discovery. Willow,

however, was not.

"Sister?" Willow questioned. "I'm an only child."

"But you weren't always, were you?" Katie asked.

"Get out!" Willow screamed and ran upstairs.


	3. Photograph

Thanks to everyone for the feedback! Hopefully in this or the next chapter, all of this will begin to make sense. Sorry about the wait. I must warn you, after

this week, updates won't be as often. School will be starting again, and as I'm sure most of you know, high school takes up lots of time. Don't worry

though, I'll try to keep them coming as much as I can.

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Chapter 3

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"Wait here with Dawn." Buffy instructed Katie. Buffy walked up stairs to Willow's room. She could hear Willow crying. She slowly opened the door and

peeked inside. Willow was looking at an old photograph. It was in almost new condition, so it was obviously important to the red head. She knocked on

the door and Willow motioned for her to enter.

"What's that?" Buffy asked as she walked into the room. She looked at the picture in Willow's hands and realized it was a much younger version of the

red head and a small girl.

"It's the only picture I have of me and her, she died a while after this was taken."

"Who?"

"My sister, Buffy. That girl downstairs, h-how did she know about her?" Buffy thought about what she could say to make Willow feel better. Any way

she could have put it, it was obvious that some things didn't add up.

"She um. She says her name's Katie. Rosenberg," Buffy started, "and um. I think that. I think she might be your sister."

"No, no no, she has to be a demon! My sister died Buffy. Fourteen years ago. She had-um. I know she had..."

"What Willow?"

"I- I don't know. I don't know how she died." Willow realized. She wiped the tears off of her face and stared at her friend. She didn't know now if what

she'd thought was true, was actually true.

"How 'bout we get Giles to come over and check everything out? Maybe he can do a spell to see if she is who she says."

"Okay, but Buffy," Buffy looked back at Willow, "until then, I don't think we should trust her. If she really is a demon, it could be bad."

"Dawn!" Buffy quickly made her way out of the room and down the stairs half expecting to find her sister in another horrible situation, but instead found

the two sitting on the couch talking.

"Yeah, so she's pretty much my best friend. She's the closest thing I've had to family since-" Katie stopped talking as she noticed Buffy was back, "is she

alright?"

"I'm fine." Willow said coming down behind Buffy. She walked over to Katie and motioned for her to stand up. She was A LOT taller than Willow.

About 5 inches. "Well, there's not much resemblance," she said. She wanted to find out for herself if she was really her sister. Or at least as much as she

could until Giles came.

"Yes there is," Dawn stated. "You two have the exact same green eyes. And sorry to tell you, but those blonde highlights aren't fooling anyone. You are

totally a red-head." She said to the taller of the two. They looked at eachother and smiled. "Same grin too." Dawn said as she left the room.

"So, what are you into?" Willow asked. She wanted to know if they had anything else in common.

"I'm pretty good with computers," Willow smiled and nodded," Magic too, but you probably knew that."

"That I could tell. Your vibe is very...magic-y. So um...doyoulikeguysorgirls?" Willow spat out. The younger girl laughed. Willow was almost worried

when Katie spoke.

"I like guys. A lot. But uh my friend, the one I was telling Dawn about, she is absolutely gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that because you know

there really isn't and I love her just the same and you know I know tons of gay people and most of them are really cool. There's even a club at the

Academy. Not that I am a member or anything. But it's not because I don't support them because I really have no problem with-"

"Look Will, she's a babbler." Buffy said grinning. Willow decided to ignore Buffy's comment and move on the the rest of the interrogation.

"So do you have a boyfriend?"

"Wow. That's kind of complicated." Both Buffy and Willow smiled. Oh to be seventeen. "Um Willow. Are you dating?"

"That is also quite complicated." Willow and Kennedy had been on the rocks lately. She wasn't sure if she wanted to keep dating someone she could

never love as much as she had loved Tara. "Yeah, I guess you could say I have a girlfriend at the moment." Willow wondered how her "sister" felt about

having a gay sister.

"Oh cool. I have to meet her sometime. You know, after you're done asking me all these questions and after I fill Buffy in on why I'm here." Willow was

relieved at how much it didn't bother her. If they were sisters, she wanted to be sisterly, not just people who shared the same parents.

"Right," Buffy said," you never finished the story. Your grandmother had something for Willow?"

"Yes. Yes she did. Our mother ignored her magic, but as we all know, ignoring something doesn't make it go away. When grandma came, she knew that

our mother would never use the magic the way her sister were to. So she took it away from her, leaving only 1/4."

"You can do that?" Buffy asked, clearly getting into the story.

"Yes, very powerful witches can take the power of other witches, but not all of it."

"Go on then, I've only been bloody waiting to hear the rest for oh I don't know, the past 45 minutes?" Spike said sarcasticly.

"Right. So she had the power. But she couldn't keep it. A witch can only have so much power. Our father was not from a magical family, and didn't

posess any power, so any child he and my mother had would only be half as powerful as Mother. Since our grandmother had taken almost all of

Mother's power, none of the children born after Willow would have a fraction of the power she had."

"But?" Buffy asked.

"But it was important that Willow would be strong. Since she had half of the power of our family, which is already more than most get, my grandmother

felt it was important that she also have half of Mother's power. So she gave it to her."

"What about the other part, where'd it go?" Willow wondered.

"She looked at our mother and said "May the next child be your last, and may she, along with her sister, have the power to save the world, by the means

of her sister." That's why we have no more siblings, and I have magic."

"Wait. When you were born, you only had a quarter power, that isn't nearly as much as Willow has." Buffy said.

"No. We have the same amount of power. She happens to have more magic power. Grandma knew that I didn't need as much. She could tell that I was

to be...special."

"You mean she could see that you had the potential to become a slayer?"

"Exactly."

"But what did she mean when she said "by the means of her sister?" Willow was curious. She didn't think she had done anything to Katie.

"Well, in the Academy, I was trained to be a slayer, but the power I had wasn't that of a slayer. That was, until you did a little spell."

"So I made you a slayer?"

"Not quite. You released the rest of my power." She smiled. Just then there was a knock at the door and Buffy went to let Giles in.

"You there, drink this." Giles instructed as he handed a vial of something semi-liquid to Katie that was green and looked fuzzy.

"Is this swamp water?"

"It's demon juice." Giles said as Buffy let out a giggle.

"Excuse me?" Katie asked as she looked at it. "This better not be frog because eww. Frogs are disgusting beyond belief." She drank it in a quick shot as

Buffy and Dawn acknowledged another similarity. "Oh, my God, what is that called, Escense of Ass?" Her skin turned a bright shade of purple then went

back to normal within the next minute.

"Willow, she is indeed human." Before she could blink, she found herself pulling Katie into a tight squeeze. She let go and smiled at her newly found sister.

"So, this academy? Tell me all about it."

"Well, as you know, when I was three, they sent me away. I was showing signs of magic and super-strength. Did they really tell you I was dead?"

"Yeah, they did."

"That's horrible." They took a moment and just looked eachother in the eye, only to find a pair just like their own staring back. "And, so I lived at The

Universal Academy for Magical and Super-Human Studies. The Academy is way shorter though." She laughed again. "When I got there, all I had was

an old picture of us, and a couple uniforms. They put me in a room with all the other three-year-old girls and Sarah, my best friend, was the girl in the

bed next to me. We would talk for hours about the things we'd left behind. We were just a couple of little kids who thought that they meant it when they

said we'd get to go home." She stopped as she noticed Willow's eyes begin to fill with tears. "Hey, don't cry. It wasn't a bad life. When we turned ten we

were allowed to move into the dorms. Sarah was my roommate there too. We had fun there. And, the boy's dorms were right across the street. All of

the boys at the school had been born into families of watchers who had decided not to train them at home. Mostly boys whose fathers had died in duty.

And they weren't allowed to come until they were eight, so there were five years of my life where I wasn't busy with boys."

"Is your complicated boyfriend a student there?" Willow teased.

"Yes. I don't think he knows I'm here though. His family is from this area too, do you think you know any of them?"

"What's his name?" Buffy asked.

"Andrew Chase." Willow and Buffy looked at eachother in disbelief.

"Small world..." Buffy said as that annoying Disney song began to play in her brain over and over and over and over...


	4. Secret Sisters and Graveyard Chants

**OK, yes, it has been a very very long time since I updated last. I really wanted to over break, but I never got around to it. I have a long weekend, and I have decided to give you guys some more. Please keep the feedback coming, I love it, and thanks to everyone who has been following the story so patiently. This chapter is very short, and the information in it makes no sense at the moment. Don't worry, I will have the next chapter up today. I promise that I will not sleep until it's up! In case you have not caught on, Sunnydale never sank after the First went away. **

--------

"What does that mean?" Katie asked.

"Well, Cordelia Chase is a girl we used to know, but she moved to LA."

"Who cares to hear about Cordelia Chase when I have the results of the blood test here?" Giles asked coming back into the room grinning.

"Oh bloody hell, do you lot really need to know?" Spike started, "It's obvious."

"Just the same, they should know," Giles told him. "and that isn't all they should know either. Yes, you two are sisters." Giles said. They smiled at each other as he continued to speak, "And you may be interested to know that you're descendants of the Owens'."

"Who are the Owens'?" Willow asked.

"At one time, they were the most powerful magical family in all of Europe. Eventually, as the Americas were colonized, many powerful family members were killed in the witch trials." He explained.

"Why didn't they use their magic to save themselves?" Dawn asked.

"It is understood that before their deaths, the members would transfer their powers to their relatives. The most powerful witches getting more powerful as their relatives were killed."

"But I thought you said that a witch can't live without power." Dawn countered.

"Exactly. The absence of power is what killed them. No Owens would be killed by simple human means."

"So how are we related to them?" Willow asked.

"Willow, haven't you ever met our aunts or grandmother?" Katie asked her.

"No, I haven't, why?"

"Their surname, our mother's surname, is Owens."

"I guess I never really had much to do with mom's family." Willow said.

"You'll get your chance soon enough." The younger girl said, offering her sister a comforting smile.

"See, having a secret sister, not really so bad once you get past the whole, I have a secret sister thing." Buffy said.

"No, I guess not." Willow replied while leading the way to the kitchen.

The rest followed, and although Giles still had more he wanted to tell them, he decided it could wait until the morning.

---

1 AM, a graveyard at the edge of town:

A tall figure in a black robe stood in the middle of many headstones. This was a newer section of the graveyard, one that all of the potentials who were killed in battle were buried. After the First had gone away, Buffy had her mother and Tara moved to that section as well. She knew that they really didn't die fighting the First, but she loved them, and decided they deserved a special place.

The figure in the robe held an old, leather bound book. The figure set the book down in front of them, next to three shovels. The figure lifted its hands and began to chant:

"Vienen mis amigos, nosotros tienen mucho trabajo a hacer."

Then, two more figures appeared. The tallest of the three picked up to book and stood in the center of the shorter two. It said a spell, and the book floated in front of its face. The three then joined hands and the tallest began to read in a very masculine voice:

"Subida, combatientes. Deje a innocent entre usted volver a esta tierra. Deje los de usted que no mereció morir vuelta. De los huesos a la carne, levántese."

Power erupted from them and spread throughout the section. As fate would have it, only two graves began to shake.

"Those are the only two who weren't meant to die?" one of the shorter figures asked.

"It looks like it," the man said , " we have to hurry, before they get hurt."

The other two quickly grabbed shovels and began to dig in the shaking graves. They went quickly and soon they had two coffins in front of them.

"What now?" a shorter figure asked.

"Now, we wait." the man said, pulling off his hood. His face was young and pale, and his hair was black, like the night. His eyes were a bright green, the kind that could melt the heart of any girl whose gaze met his. He looked tired, but a grin emerged on his face as a coffin stopped shaking.

"This is it." he told the others, as a hand shot through the wood, and the person began to fight their way out of the box.

**Ooooo, exciting right? I bet you can't wait for the next chapter! Feedback please! And I mean it, the next chapter will be up TONIGHT. If you noticed, the spells were in Spanish. Why Spanish? It is the only non-English language I understand partially, and the internet translator can speak it fairly well. Therefore, I KIND OF know that this is at least a BIT accurate, but I am not sure that it is exact, so here it is for those of you who either speak only English, or really do/did not enjoy high school Spanish classes, like myself. I also would be a horrid spell writer, so yeah, I know they're pretty stupid, but at least you get the idea.**

**Translations 1) Come my friends, we have much work to do.**

**2) Rise fighters. May the innocent among you return to the earth. Let those who did not die fighting come back. Bones to flesh, return.**


	5. What the hell? Wait, what is Dawn doing!

**This chapter is going to rock your socks off. I hope. I think Giles says things like "Oh um, eh, yes, well…" quite often, so I wrote him saying similar things. It's kind of funny if you think about it. Maybe not, but to me, it's pretty funny, so I guess you will have to bear with me.**

**--**

The sunlight came in through the windows of the Summers's house early in the morning. While people were getting up and getting themselves ready for the day, the quiet house grew louder, and with each passing minute, the people inside it shook off their sleep and made their ways out of the house, and off to their daily adventures. Willow was already in the kitchen when Katie came downstairs.

"Sleep well?" the older sister asked.

"Yeah, I'm just still…letting it all sink in. I can't believe I actually got to meet you." The younger said.

The two shared a smile as Willow handed a cup of coffee to her sister.

"You do like coffee right? If you don't, there's plenty of stuff. Dawnie hates coffee. There's um… there's coca, I think. Somewhere around here." Willow went into babble mode and got up to search for the supposed coca, when she was stopped by Katie's voice.

"Willow. Coffee is fine, thank you."

"Um, sure. No problem."

The two sat there in the awkward silence, looking over each other's features, as if they didn't already believe they were sisters. Neither noticed the kitchen door swing open, and neither saw the short, dark haired woman walk in. they realized they were not alone when the woman began to speak angrily.

"What the hell is this Willow?" Kennedy screamed.

"What? What the hell is what?" the redhead asked confused.

"Sure, we're having relationship problems, but that gives you no right to go and cheat on me while I'm on patrol with some girl who looks like she's 16!"

"I'm 17, actually, and I think you're mistaken." Katie explained.

"Oh mistaken? No honey. You're mistaken if you believe there's anything to this. You're just some one night stand that MY girlfriend is trying to use to show me how complicated and horrible our relationship has gotten!"

"What? No!" Willow said, "No, Kennedy, you think I. No. She's my sister, not some…one night. No! Complicated and horrible? Our relationship is complicated and horrible?" Willow asked in disbelief. She had known how she felt, but she had no idea that Kennedy was feeling like their relationship was doomed as well.

"Yes Willow, I think our relationship is- wait? Sister?"

Both girls nodded to Kennedy, who looked as though she found what she was hearing very hard to believe.

"Willow, you told me you were an only child, what about that?" Kennedy asked.

"Well, that's what I thought, until last night…" Willow began as she began to tell the entire story. Katie sat there, nodding at the appropriate times, listening to every detail of the story, like she didn't know it fully. She needed to know it was true. She wanted to be sure that for once in her life, someone in her immediate family was actually willing to admit her existence.

"Wow," was all Kennedy could say as Willow finished the story.

"I know," Willow said.

The room grew quiet again. Katie decided that the two needed some time together to talk about their problem, so she got up to leave. Just as she moved from her chair, a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," Kennedy said, moving from her seat next to Willow.

She opened the door to find a pretty blonde girl, with a very large smile, standing in front of her. She was not very tall, and quite thin, but as soon as she looked into the room, her enormous power could be felt. Willow looked at the visitor in amazement and familiarity.

"Oh my gosh," she began, "it's-"

"Sarah!" Katie excitedly shouted. She ran to the door and pulled the girl into a tight squeeze. "Willow, Kennedy, this is Sarah, my best friend." She told them grinning.

"Sarah? Well uh, hi Sarah, I'm Willow." Willow said offering her hand to the younger girl. The moment they touched hands, a jolt went through them both.

"Wow," the younger girl said, "you are incredibly powerful." Willow looked at the girl. 'She has to be related to Tara,' Willow thought, 'there is no other way she could look like that, or feel like that…'

"I'm Kennedy," the other woman said, seemingly jealous of the connection Willow and Sarah just had. They shook hands and the group went into the living room and sat.

"Can I get you anything?" Willow asked.

"No thank you." The girl said smiling. It was a smile Willow could never forget.

"So what brings you here?" Kennedy asked.

"Well, Katie here didn't exactly tell anyone she was going to be visiting you." The girl said, still grinning. "I thought it would be a good idea to make sure she wasn't in danger. And, an excuse to be out of the Academy. It's not a bad place, but there are places I really would rather be."

"So you're not supposed to be here?" Kennedy asked excitedly. She was never one to follow the rules, and the fact that Willow's sister had broken them, made her all the more interested.

"Technically, they never said I couldn't be here." Katie said as I wide grin broke out on her face as well.

"and technically, you're breaking just about every rule in the book." Sarah said.

"Technically, I don't care." Katie replied. The two laughed before Sarah continued.

"You know, someone else has been looking for you too."

"Who else would want to know where I am?" Katie questioned.

"Um, Andrew. He's been hounding me since he found out you left. He's really trying his best to keep it quiet, but I can tell he'll be here by then end of the day."

"Andrew?" Kennedy asked.

"He's a boy from the Academy that is completely in love with my girl here. I can't say that I blame him, but he sure can get annoying." Sarah said. Katie blushed as she thought of him looking for her all around town.

The front door opened, and Giles and Dawn walked in and set down bags from the Magic Shop.

"Oh, well, eh, hello," Giles said recognizing the girl, "who might you be."

"Oh, Giles, Dawn, this is Sarah, a friend of Katie's" Willow explained.

"Oh, uh, well, pleased to meet you. Willow, might I get your help in the kitchen?"

"Sure." Willow said, catching on to his concern by the way his voice sounded.

"Hi, I'm Dawn." The brunette said smiling. "So, you're the infamous Sarah? I've heard a lot about you. Good things, don't worry." Dawn said in an awkward and flirtatious tone.

"Hi Dawn." Sarah said.

Their immediate attraction was very obvious to Katie and Kennedy, who looked at each other and smiled as the other two stared at each other.

--

In the kitchen:

"Oh my. Oh my word. She is. That girl is-."

"Tara?" Willow finished for him.

"Uh, yes, quite. Spitting image actually." Giles said.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that was her sister in there." Willow said.

"Don't you think it strange she never mentioned a sister before?"

"Did you know I had a younger sister before she showed up at the door?" Willow reasoned.

"No, I guess not." Giles said.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Buffy asked, finally coming downstairs.

"You might want to sit down for this." Willow said.

"Giles, is this bad?" Buffy asked.

"Er, um, no, not bad. Peculiar, yet, quite. Bad? Um, not currently."

"Willow?" Buffy asked.

"It's hard to explain, but there's another new girl in there." Willow said.

"Who is she?" Buffy asked.

"Well, right now, we aren't really sure…" Willow said as she began to tell Buffy of her and Giles's thoughts on the subject.

'Strange girls showing up at the house everyday? I'm glad that's all it is,' Buffy thought.

If only Buffy knew what this author knew…….


	6. I'll fight with my sister if I want to!

Hey everyone

**Hey everyone! Long time no see. I really don't know where all the time went. I would like to thank everyone who has waited patiently for me to continue, as well as all of the other authors who inspired me to finish what I started. I've taken a long break from this story, and I think the only proper apology is a long chapter.**

**--**

When the first coffin lid was finally broken through, it was already morning. The body emerged and winced at the California sun.

'Where am I?' the person thought. After a moment or two of looking around, another thought came, 'What am I doing in Sunnydale?' Shock and panic flooded the mind and was only interrupted by the sound of wood breaking. As if on cue, the second body emerged. The two stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, after letting it all sink in, the two wrapped one another in a tight embrace.

--

"Wow, so you're some hybrid witch-slayer too?" Dawn asked Sarah. There was something familiar about her that intrigued Dawn. She had been trying to figure out what it was when Sarah spoke,

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. I've never been referred to as a hybrid before. Yes though, my mother was a witch. My father was, well, I don't really know what my father was. Usually girls go to The Academy when they're three, but my mother sent me right after I was born. The headmistress, Mrs. Hawthorne, is my grandmother, so she took me in and I've been there ever since. My mother used to come all the time to see me. She died a few years ago though," Sarah looked downward and frowned a little at the memory of her mother.

"My mom died a few years ago too," Dawn said, "and I miss her all the time." Dawn tried to wipe away the tears in the corners of her eyes.

"I know what you mean," Sarah said grabbing Dawn's hand, "but you have to think of it this way, she wouldn't want you to cry over her. She'd want you to think of her and be happy." The two exchanged smiles as Kennedy and Katie quietly exited the room. As they entered the kitchen, Buffy, Willow, and Giles stopped what they were saying and turned toward the two.

"Oh, hey you guys. Bonding already?" Willow asked.

"No, the brat and the hybrid were freaking us out so we-"

"Yes! We were talking about…weapons and uh, stuff," Katie said cutting Kennedy off.

"Well, that's wonderful. I actually did some research on your Academy because it didn't quite seem to ring a bell. Apparently it was one of the Watcher's Council's best kept secrets. Only a few of the more senior members knew anything of it. It seems as though you were trained incredibly well," Giles said.

"Wait, why weren't all of the potentials there instead of out in the world?" Buffy asked.

"It wasn't a mandatory institution. The students there were given by their parents. The council had no part in the placement of the girls," Giles informed.

"So my parents chose to put my sister in there?" Willow asked.

"Yes. If they didn't want her to go, the whole Owens clan would have been able to stop the council within minutes."

"Oh. Last night I though…I thought it had been against their will. How could they choose to-"

"Willow," Katie interrupted, "it's okay. For some reason they thought it was best for me. Here, I wanted to give this to you earlier," She pulled out a picture, identical to the one Willow kept with her, of the two of them together.

"How did you get this? I have one just like it in my room!"

"Dad gave it to me last time I saw him. Ever since then I've wanted to come see you. Make sure you weren't just in my imagination."

"Dad?" Willow asked surprised. "You know Dad?"

"Yeah. He comes to visit all the time, Grandmother too of course. And so do all of our aunts. Well not Aunt Catherine but that's because she's-"

"What?" Willow didn't know how to react. In her entire life, she'd seen her grandmother once a year until she started college, then she stopped communication with her altogether. She'd met two of her four aunts before, but had no real relationship. Then there was her father. For as long as she could remember, he'd been away on business trips too often to get to know her well at all. 'All of those business trips, were they really just cover ups to go visit her?' She thought, 'What about Mom? She was always working. Maybe she went to see her too. Maybe they spent all of their time away from home visiting the daughter they didn't even tell anyone existed!' Her thoughts raced.

"Yes about the business trips thing. No to the other," Katie said.

"And you can read my mind?" At that point, Willow was getting very angry.

"Yes. But if you don't want me to, I'll try to remember not to. It sort of comes naturally." Sensing the hostility building in the room, Giles asked Kennedy to help him with something in the other room, which really was a way to get out quick. Buffy stayed behind incase things got out of control. With one megawitch and one witch-slayer combo, things could get messy and Buffy didn't want either one to hurt the other.

"Well maybe you should work on natural manners. It's rude to read other people's minds without permission! Very rude!"

When Katie smirked at the hilarity that came out of Willow's mouth, the look on her face was quickly replaced by anger as Willow sent a small shock her way. Immediately, Katie's slayer instincts took over and she sent a punch in Willow's direction. When Willow dodged her fist, Katie let out a scream as her hand went through the wall. She then shot a spell at Willow, who yelped as a magical blue hand came around and flicked her in the head. Willow was about to retaliate when Buffy decided it was time to break it up.

"Hey! Quit it!" When the two stopped and looked at Buffy, she couldn't help but to imitate an angry mother. "You two should not be fighting! You are sisters, you need to start acting like it. Now give each other a hug and apologize." When the two did as they were told she smiled to herself, 'Being a mom isn't that hard.'

"Yeah right!" they both said. Buffy got an embarrassed look on her face as she sat down and Willow began to speak.

"So every time he left to go on some important business thing, he was really going to see you?"

"I don't know about every time, but he does visit a lot." Willow could feel her heart begin to break at the thought of her parents going to see her sister. For her whole life, she had just assumed that they were busy and that their relationship was just like that. Knowing that they cared for their other daughter brought her great pain. At seeing the look on her sister's face, Katie spoke again, "What, you two aren't close? He talks about you like you're his best friend or something."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he always tells me about your accomplishments and how good you are at everything and how proud he is of you. Hasn't he ever told you?"

"No, he hasn't. What does Mom say about me?" Willow was excited to hear that her father did care about her even if he didn't show it. She was hoping that her mother felt the same.

"Oh, I really don't know." A look of pain crossed Katie's face just as it had Willow's moments before. "To be perfectly honest, I've never met Mother. I'm told we have the same facial features, but mine have probably been beaten so many times we don't look much alike at all anymore."

"Wait, so you have a great relationship with Dad, you're close to Mom's sisters and her mother, but you've never met her?"

"Not once." Buffy was just as surprised as Willow was at it. For as long as Buffy had known Willow, she had known that Sheila Rosenberg was not a loving mother, or even a mother at all. It was strange to her though, that after fourteen years, she had never gone to see her youngest daughter.

"So tell me about our aunts? I've met Diana twice and Bridget once. I'm not even sure I know the other two's names." Willow was very curious about this because she had never known a family, at least not her biological family, and was still hopeful that she once day would.

"Well there's Aunt Beth, who I'm named after, and-"

Before she could continue, Buffy interrupted, "Beth? Your name is Katie."

Katie smiled as she continued, "My name is Elizabeth Catherine Rosenberg, after my two oldest aunts. As long as I can remember though, I've been Katie. Guess you'd have to ask my parents why." Buffy smiled and nodded. She thought it was funny that after many years of friendship, her own friends didn't know that her name was Elizabeth. They had even put Buffy on her gravestone. She stopped thinking about her own name long enough to hear the story.

"And there's Aunt Catherine, but I've never met her. I guess she got married and no one in the family's talked to her for like 25 years. I could ask about her I guess. You remember that Aunt Diana is a doctor right? Well she's my godmother, and one of my idols. She's amazing at what she does. And her magic is unbelievable. She's really great. Aunt Bridget is insane, but in a good way, not the 'oh look at me, I'm insane' sort of way. She is just hilarious. Aunt Beth is way smart. She teaches at The Academy. Not much for nepotism though, which is a shame because I can't get better than an A minus in her Calculus class while Sarah can look at her notes ten minutes before the test and get an A plus like it's nothing." Both Willow and Buffy were surprised at how much she babbled and how much like Willow she was when it came to school.

"Oh, sorry, am I talking too much?"

"No, not at all, it's just that I'm not sure my brain can listen that fast," Willow replied.

"So who are some of your other idols?" Buffy asked, hoping she would say her. After all, who else would a young slayer look up to than the original Chosen One?

"Oh, well Willow of course," earning her a blush from her sister, "From what I've heard, and felt in that fight, you're way powerful. Then there's Sarah, cause she's always got my back," Buffy nodded and waited for her turn to be mentioned, "Oh gosh, I can't believe I didn't think of this one sooner! This one is just awesome. Besides Aunt Diana, my absolute idol is," Buffy braced herself for the mention of her name and tried to hide her smile, "Faith Lehane!"

"FAITH? You idolize Faith? You look up to and admire and wish to be like Faith?" Buffy could not even believe what she had just heard, and her mouth was going faster than her brain could even realize.

"Well yeah. She's-"

"Badass right? That's cool with you kids, being badass. Not being responsible or a good person. Nope Faith is badass so let's all go idolize Faith!"

The sisters looked at Buffy with looks of confusion on their faces. Willow understood that Buffy was a much better person than Faith, but didn't understand the freak out.

"Oh, no, not because of that, that's stupid," Katie said as Buffy agreed, "it's because even though she made a lot of mistakes and hurt a lot of people, she's trying to make up for them and be better. And you too I guess. You did forgive her, which is totally huge of you." Buffy smiled finally at the fact she was recognized for something she had done.

"Let's go find out what everyone else is talking about in the other room," Buffy said, leaving the kitchen.

"Is she always like that?" The younger sister asked. Her question was met with a laugh from the older sister as they joined the others.

--

**Oh man! I'm so glad that I was able to get that done. I hope you all enjoyed it. Don't worry, I didn't forget about the two people who rose from the dead or the creepy hooded figures that got them out. They'll all be in the next chapter! Also in the next chapter, awesome Aunt Diana, crazy Aunt Bridget, and super smart Aunt Beth. Excited yet? I know I am. Let me know what you think, I love to hear from you!**


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